Ofsted Framework 2012: The quality of leadership and management of the school

From January 2012 OFSTED Inspectors will evaluate the extent to which leaders and managers at all levels including, where relevant, governors: demonstrate an ambitious vision for the school and high expectations for what every pupil and teacher can achieve, and set high standards for quality and performance.

Improve teaching and learning including the management of pupils’ behaviour

Provide a broad and balanced curriculum that meets the needs of all pupils, enables all pupils to achieve their full educational potential and make progress in their learning, and that promotes their good behaviour and safety and their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

Evaluate the school’s strengths and weaknesses and use their findings to promote improvement

Improve the school and develop its capacity for sustaining improvement by developing leadership capacity and high professional standards among all staff

Engage with parents and carers in supporting pupils’ achievement, behaviour and safety and their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

Ensure that all pupils are safe.

Outline guidance

Inspectors should focus on how effectively leaders and managers at all levels enable pupils to overcome specific barriers to learning and promote improvements for all pupils and groups of pupils in the context of the individual school. These are likely to include:

How relentlessly the leaders, managers and governors pursue a vision for excellence, for example through:

the rigorous implementation of well-focused improvement plans

the consistent application of policies and procedures

the extent to which staff, pupils, parents and carers are engaged by and contribute to realising the vision and ambition of leaders, managers and governors

accurate monitoring and evaluation of the school’s performance with a secure understanding of the individual skills and attributes of pupils and staff, and taking account of the views of parents, carers and other stakeholders

effective strategies for improving teaching including, where relevant, the
teaching of reading and improving behaviour, including:

seeking out and modelling best practice

monitoring the quality of teaching and learning and acting on its findings

developing staff through dialogue, coaching, training, mentoring and support

leading a coherent programme of professional development

leading curriculum development

training including, for example, on child protection

using appropriate procedures for tackling underperformance

ensuring that the curriculum:

Is broad and balanced and meets the needs, aptitudes and interest of pupils so that it promotes high levels of achievement and good behaviour and promotes their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

Promotes a successful progression to the pupils’ next stage of education, training or employment

At Key Stage 4 is based on academic courses and supplemented where relevant, by appropriate vocational courses

Strategies and procedures, including the provision of appropriate guidance, to help pupils prepare for life in modern democratic Britain and a global society

Managing performance including tackling areas of underperformance, particularly any weaknesses in the quality of teaching and the curriculum

Identifying and supporting pupils with special educational needs, those with
disabilities and pupils who have other significant disadvantages so that their
progress is maximised

Effective work by the governing body that acts as a critical friend and holds
senior leaders to account for all aspects of the school’s performance

Promoting the confidence and engagement of parents and carers in their
children’s learning and the development of good behaviour

Working in partnership with other schools, external agencies and the community,
including business, to improve the school, extend the curriculum and increase
the range and quality of learning opportunities for pupils

Managing safeguarding arrangements to ensure that there is safe recruitment
and all pupils are safe including, for example, the effective identification of
children in need or at risk of significant harm, including:

Maintaining the single central record and appropriate arrangements for child

Protection

The rigour with which absence is followed up

How well safe practices and a culture of safety are promoted though the curriculum.

Taken from OFSTED

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/draft-evaluation-schedule-for-inspection-of-maintained-schools-and-academies-january-2012